The Hopeful Time

Eastertide, stretching from Easter Sunday until Pentecost, is a time of hope for those who believe in Jesus Christ. Are you struggling with issues raising your children? Take hope in the victory of Jesus. Has sickness and illness dragged you down these past months? Draw strength from the new life of faith in Jesus. Are you worn down by the rumors of war and the deaths of our young people? Let the Servant Jesus carry this cross for you.

We want to be men and women of hope, to expect improvement and success and achievement in the future, but things do not always work out. “Realistic” people tell us to “wise up” or proclaim, “This is how it is!” Yet something in us still hopes. Whenever what we hope for is not in hand, we still hope that it can be realized. We study. We work. We sacrifice. All this for our dreams and our plans. In a word, we hope.

The best advice I ever heard was from the English statesman, Winston Churchill. He gave the shortest graduation speech on record. They asked his advice about success in life. He rose, strode to the lectern, and slowly stated, “Never, never, never give up!”

Still there is more than this to hope. Saint John the Evangelist wrote about the effects of Easter. This is the advice that he provided for those who believe in God. (For others who do not, it may seem unbelievable, or something they’d like to believe, but cannot.) Saint John tells us that “We are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed...” (I John: Chapter 3)

Everyone has moments of despair when we do not want to get out of bed. Sometimes we have weeks and months in which we are worn down and burdened by family problems, and some of us have years of sickness or financial problems, which simply cannot be solved. In faith, Saint John is reminding us of what we have. “We are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed...” Some days I get started only with the hope that maybe this is the day in which God will reveal the whole story. Having hope inside you is to deal with things that are not yet at hand. Faith is the force that leads us around the next corner with hope in our heart. Oftentimes I only need that nudge to try one more time so that I avoid the temptation to give up or worse.

The Easter days are the prime time for hope. In February you figured we would never feel the warmth of the sun again, so you spent too much money to run away to Florida for a week of sun! In December the darkness was getting to you, so you went and spent too much money for presents, hoping to get some new good feelings out of going into debt! Yes, without hope we wind up broke, financially and spiritually.

Our best prayer of hope, one we all know and love, is the 23rd Psalm:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

“We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John: Chapter 3)